This Newsletter is published by the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society

P.O. Box 10402, LINTON GRANGE. 6015

Editing, Composing and Printing by

Ashley ZS2AG

February 2008

QSX-PE - A Newsletter for the discerning Radio Ham

A view of the pyramid erected by Sir Rufane Donkin, in memory of his wife Elizabeth, whohad died in India, and after whom the city of Port Elizabeth is named.

Download QSX from www.zs2pe.co.za

PEARS Monthly MeetingGuest speaker for the February 19th meeting will be Al ZS2U. Al will

speak about dipole antennae - even though it is one of the most

fundamental of antennae, by listening to on-the-air discussion about

dipoles, it has become apparent to Al that there is a lot of misinformation

out there about dipole design.

So come to the February meeting at 19H30, and fill in those embarrass-

ing gaps in your knowledge!

WRINKLY RAVERSThe next get together ie 6 March will take place at The Hedges, 151 Main Rd,Walmer (behind Pick Fruit).

So come and join the Wrinked Ravers as they enjoy one anothers company,chatting and enjoying a meal together.

Dear fellow Radio Amateurs andPEARS members,

How quickly time flies. Currentlythere are severa l th ingshappening in the club. A newcontainer has been purchased forthe Lady Slipper Site, Please feelfree to offer your services in thereplacement process no matterhow large or small. We arecurrently experiencing problemswith the Londt Park Venue for ourmeeting as the original hall hasbeen changed into a makeshiftbar and as a result we are in thevenue on the outskirts of the parkcomplex, however this did notdampen members enthusiasmand in Janaury we experienced

standing room only so I hope this trend will continue.

To find out more join us.

So look forward to seeing all of you at the monthly meetings and continue tosupport your club and encourage non members to join. Our strength lies in ournumbers.

Amateur Radio is alive and well in PEARS. So come on SAY HELLO!

73 Donovan ZS2DL Chairman PEARS

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Hamnet / ECARES News

Are you keen to build some amateur radio equipment,but feel you need some guidance to do so, why not contactthe Elmer sub-committee.

Feel free to listen in or join in the discussion on Mondaynights, just after the re-broadcast of the PEARS weeklybulletin.

The sub-committee consists of

Bill ZS2ABZ, phone 041-5812580;

Viv ZS2VM, phone 041-3681340 and

Al ZS2U, phone 041-360-2983.

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

As mentioned often enough in the past, we need to be reasonablyprepared for any emergency or disaster situation. We are currentlyexperiencing electrical power outages that I for one never dreamtwould ever occur. Listening to all the discussions on this subjectleaves one uncertain as to just how serious the problem is andwhich way it will go in the future. We will need to do the best we canto prepare ourselves for whatever occurs.

SOCIAL

Welcome to Anton Nieuwerth ZR2AN who has joined Hamnet andEcares.

Congratulations to George Pearson, ex ZR2GLP who has upgradedto ZS2E and to Otto van Rooyen, ex ZR2VAN who has upgraded toZS2Q.

73,

Al ZS2U

Provincial Director

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Minutes of PEARS Monthly MeetingHeld at Londt Park Sports Club on 15 January 2008 at 20:00

Welcome.

The Chairman welcomed everybody.

Attendance & Apologies.

As per the attendance register.

Acceptance of minutes of previous meeting.

No minutes available for December meeting. (End of year braai heldat Londt Park)

Matters arising

Nil.

Correspondence.

1. Two applications for membership:

André Greyling ZS2ACG with R60 enclosed in envelope;

Glen Kraut ZS2GK.

Finance.

The Treasurer ZS2RT reported that all was well.

General.

1. We have received a donation of R6 500 from the SARL for theextension of the WiFi network.

2. At the committee meeting it was agreed that ZS2AAW be reim-bursed R2 200 for the purchase of a new computer for the BBS.Agreed.

3. ZS2WG will liaise with mountain club members concerning therepair of the Cockscomb repeater, ZS2GV said that he might beable to arrange for a helicopter during March. ZR2NT mentionedthat the property concerned has changed hands, or soon will be.

4. The replacement of the container at Lady’s Slipper will soon betaking place – many willing hands will be required for the operation.

5. ZS2DL said that the IRLP (located at his QTH) will be coming offits simplex frequency and will be linked to the Town repeaterinstead. This is to make it more accessible to members and tostimulate activity.

6. ZS2EZ addressed the meeting about participation in the SARLField Day contest early in February. Interested persons to contactZS2EZ or ZS2DL. Contd. on Page 8

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A SIMPLE TWO METRE BEAMby Al Akers, ZS2U

This antenna was developed for those amateurs who would like to have an antennawhich performs somewhat better than a half wave dipole, especially for portableuse, but do not wish to construct an elaborate multi-element beam with it'sassociated matching requirements and it's size and time consuming assembly ordismantling.

It is a two element beam, consisting of a driven element which is fed directly in thecentre with a coaxial cable, and a reflector. The elements are made of 3 millimetrediameter brazing rods (one metre lengths). The boom is made of 20 millimetrediameter PVC electrical fittings and tubing, so make sure the fittings fit snugly ontothe tubing. Dimensions are given in the diagram. The elements are mounted in themiddle of one half of the couplings and this half is filled with epoxy resin or similarmaterial to support the elements. Attach a piece of PVC tubing to the top of themast to be used, and the T-piece is fitted onto this. The antenna itself takes lessthan a minute to assemble or dismantle. The driven element on it's own can beplugged onto the mast and used as a half wave dipole. Used this way, or as abeam, the measured SWR was 1,2:1 maximum across the two metre band. Gain isapproximately 4 to 5 dB.

Know Your BibleCorrespondence Course

Six lessons at no cost to you.

SMS Ashley ZS2AG on 0823726696

Page 5

Toroid Toroid Toroid Toroid (Part (Part (Part (Part 1)1)1)1)By Allan Whitehead, ZS2R

This series of articles has been prepared from information gathered byJohan, ZS1I. Thanks to Johan for his time and effort in making a largedatabase of information available to me. I have endeavoured to select whathams might find useful and to keep the mathematics simple.

Firstly a few concepts: Permeability, this is a property of the core materialof a coil. For our purposes it is worth noting that air has a permeability of1. If an air core coil has an inductance of 3 microhendrys and a core with apermeability of 7 is used in the place of air, then the coil's inductance willbe 21 uH. In other words the inductance of a coil is proportional to thepermeability of the core material. In practice things are often not so simple.Permeability values depend on the strength of the magnetic field in thecore. In the tables below the initial permeability, u(i) values are given. Thisvalue is for low values of field strength - the kind of situation that prevails inreceiver circuits but not in linear amplifier final stages. Core permeabilitiesmay also be frequency dependent .

Resitivity is the resistance between the opposite faces of a 1cm cube of thematerial.

Testing Unkown Ferrite Cores

Ferrites are not colour coded and can roughly be divided into two groups.Those with permeabilities up to 850 are usually made from nickel-zincmaterial and have high volume resistivity ranging from 1x105 to 1x108.Higher permeability ferrites are usually made from maganese-zinc materialand have volume resistivity ranging from 10 to 100 ohmcm. Iron powdercores are usually colour coded and have very high volume resistivity. Part2 will deal with these toroids. An initial test of the material can be made bychecking the dc resistance between opposite faces/sides of a core. Lowreadings (less than 10k) indicate a high permeability material. If you canmeasure inductance at a low frequency (10-100kHz), wind 10 turns of wireon the core and measure the inductance. You can then work back from theferrite material formula and calculate the A

Lvalue, which can be compared

with the tables of known cores of the same physical dimensions and socome up with a reasonable match. If 10 turns does not give a measureablereading try 20 or 30 turns.

AL = (L x 106 ) / N2 where L is inductance in mH, N is number of turns. A

Lin mH per 1000 turns.

For example consider a toroid with OD 0,5 inches , ID 0,281 and height0,188. From the table this is a FT-50 toroid. The 50 indicates the outsidediameter in hundreths of an inch. Wind 10 turns on this toroid and spacethe coils evenly on the toroid. Now measure the inductance of this coil.Suppose a value of 53uH is measured. The formula above will yeild an A

Lvalue of 530. From the table below the nearest match for a FT-50 toroid ismix 43. The complete name for this toroid would be FT-50-43.

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RF power rating can be roughly checked by using two exactly similar coreseach wound with the same primary and secondary turns (say 10 turns eachon primary and secondary) and then connecting the cores back to backbetween a transmitter and dummy load. This arrangement provides a 1:1equivalent so that the transmitter sees the correct load. Losses are doubledby using two transformers, but this does not matter for the test. Set thetransmitter to the desired frequency and reduce the rf power output to aminimum. Increase the power output in small steps (say 5).

To Be Continued.

Off-Road Rally/Race 19 April 2008There is more exciting activity in the pipe-line for us. The localmotor sport club has been tasked with organising a national off-road race over the weekend of 19 April 2008, somewhat similar tothe Amatola Rally of July last year. Participants in this sort ofevent are hotted-up 4x4s and those odd-looking contraptions thatresemble over-grown spiders on testosterone.

This type of event is slightly different to the Volkswagen rally thatwe are accustomed to. Stages are longer – they can be anythingup to 100 km – and while not off-road in the sense of chargingacross virgin veldt, the rougher the road/track the better. Thestages being longer, it follows that there are less stages per day.

Details are still a bit skimpy, but the event will take place in thegeneral area of Port Elizabeth, and there will be about five stagesper day.

PEARS has been asked to provide the comms, and will be finan-cially compensated for this. As for the VW rally, radio operatorswill be compensated for fuel, and hopefully there will be somechange left over for club funds.

Please note that even though it is classified as an off-road event,this does not mean that you will need a 4x4 to get to the marshal-ling points.

As usual, Chris ZS2AAW and Anthony ZS2BA are doing all theliaison with Joe Fourie and the organising committee from theMotorsport Club, and Beavan ZS2RL is attending to the recruit-ment of operators and the paperwork.

If you would like to participate, please inform either Chris,

Anthony or Beavan as soon as possible so that planning get

under way. (Their contact info is on page 11 of QSX)

73.

Beavan ZS2RL.

Contd from Page 6

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PEARS VHF/UHF ContestTWO METRE OPERATION

There was plenty of activity in our area during the PEARS VHF/UHF

contest in January, and I would like to thank all the amateurs who took the

trouble to give points to contestants.

I noticed however that many of these amateurs used vertical antennas,

which is understandable as they use these antennas for accessing

repeaters, but it was not so good for the more distant contestants. I feel

that, with a little effort and expense, a significant improvement could be

made for these stations' performance, not just for the contest which only

takes place once a year. It should be particularly useful for complex

dwellings to quickly erect, operate, then take down again, or better still, go

to some high spot. See elsewhere in QSX for two metre simplex activities.

I am therefore reprinting an article on a simple beam. You may wonder

just how well this antenna performs. Well, look at the results of the contest

when it appears in QSX.

Bill ZS2ABZ, George, then ZR2GLP, and I operated from the same site

and George was using one of these beams. Bill had a five element beam,

higher than George's beam and I had a 5 element about fifty per cent

higher than George's beam. Compare the two metre scores.

Minutes of PEARS monthly meeting

Contd. from Page 4

7. SARL awards: ZS2DL mentioned that the SARL was asking fornominations. Any nominations from members to be submitted toZS2DL together with motivation.

8. Donovan ZS2DL and Kendall ZR2WAT addressed the meetingregarding the possibility that the Parks Rugby Club would considerbuilding a clubhouse specifically for PEARS and the Mountain Club.At this stage it was no more than a tentative concept, and the partiesconcerned felt that it warranted further investigation. After consider-able discussion the meeting felt that it was a good idea, and thatKendall ZR2WAT and Chris ZS2AAW form a subcommittee to takethe matter further.

9. The meeting agreed that the Club sponsors a WiFi connection forthe Treasurer to enable him to do the club’s online banking at nocost to himself.

There was no guest speaker, and the meeting ended at 21:10.

Page 8

CONGRATULATIONS . . .

on your birthdays on your anniversaries

February

26 Henry Danielson ZS2HD

26 Yvonne Rhodes, XYL ofChum ZS2VU

29 Wolfgang Gerstle ZS2WG

March

03 Daphne Galpin, XYL of PaulZS2PG

13 Magret Ras, XYL of MartinZS2MR

14 Ali Mathieson, XYL of EwanZS1EM (currently overseas)

15 Susanna Bosch, XYL of MikeZS2FM

16 Anne Butcher, XYL ofGraham ZS2GIB

21 Andrew Gray, ZS2G

22 Peggy Moore, XYL of

February

24 Barbara and Bill Hickson

ZS2BIL

27 Nina and Serge Smetryns

ZS2SJE

March

03 Anne and Graham Butcher

ZS2GIB

03 Teresa and Tim Joubert ZS2X

04 Pamela and Jack Koen

ZR1JAC

15 Cheryl and Arno du Preez

ZS2ABT

TWO METRE SIMPLEX ACTIVITIESEach evening, stations in the Port Elizabeth area try to

establish contact with distant stations on 144,400 MHZ FM

from 19h30 to 20h00, beaming west and from 20h00 to

20h30 beaming in the East London direction.

The Russian amateur, Alex RW1CZ/MM operates from a

fishing trawler to the South of South Africa and monitors

144,250 MHZ.

Listen and call for any stations operating on 144,200 MHZ

SSB.

Page 9

Sunday BulletinsPEARS bulletins are transmitted on

Sundays immediately after the SARL

English transmission, i.e. at about

08:45 on 7098 kHz as well as the 2

metre linked network that provides

from Butterworth to George and up to

the Free State and their environs.

PEARS 7098 or 3640 kHz transceive

facilities are also remotely linked as

needed. In addition, the SARL's 40m

operations on 7082 or 7066 kHz or

Hamnet's 7070 kHz can be remotely

patched to the 2m network in receive

only mode or with full transceive ca-

pability for interactive events.

Bulletin Roster

24th Feb Anthony ZS2BA

02nd Mar Donovan ZS2DL

09th Mar Chris ZS2AAW

16th Mar Beavan ZS2RL

23rd Mar Clive ZS2RT

Advertise your swops in this

space.

Contact Ashley ZS2AG by

sending an SMS or phoning on

0823726696.

Page 10

Your Societies Committee for 2007Chairman Donovan van

Loggerenberg ZS2DL 082-8524885 zs2dl@hamradio.co.za

Vice Chair, Technical Chris Scarr ZS2AAW 041-3681344 cvscarr@intekom.co.za

Secretary Beavan Gwilt ZS2RL 041-3688810 beavan@xsinet.co.za

Treasurer / Fund Raising Clive Fife ZS2RT 041-3673203 cfife@absamail.co.za

Marketing & PR. Anthony Bruyns ZS2BA 041-3602060 anthonyb@vodamail.co.za

Contesting and Awards,

SARL Liaison Barry Murrell ZS2EZ 041-5813561 zs2ez@zs2ez.co.za

Webmaster / Youth Dev. Barry Murrell ZS2EZ 041-5813561 webmaster@zs2pe.co.za

Club Social Activities/ Glen Cummings ZS2GV 082-4112743 glen_vaness@telkomsa.net

Guest Speakers Beavan Gwilt ZS2RL 041-3688810 beavan@xsinet.co.za

RAE (co-opted for this Al Akers ZS2U 041-3602983 reucom@agnet.co.za

purpose) Paul Galpin ZS2PG 041-3721779 galpinp@absamail.co.za

VW Rally Chris Scarr ZS2AAW 041-3681344 cvscarr@intekom.co.za

Anthony Bruyns ZS2BA 041-3602060 anthonyb@vodamail.co.za

Beavan Gwilt ZS2RL 041-3688810 beavan@xsinet.co.za

Catering for meetings Bill Hodges ZS2ABZ 041-5812580 whodges@absamail.co.za

Other members Eric Hosten ZS2ECH 041-3681505 Eric.Hosten@nmmu.ac.za

Elmer Committee Bill Hodges ZS2ABZ 041-5812580 whodges@absamail.co.za

Assisted by co-opted Viv Moore ZS2VM 041-3681340 vivmoore@mweb.co.za

members Al Akers ZS2U 041-3602983 reucom@agnet.co.za

PEARS' VHF/UHF, Packet & Other Services

REPEATERS

Town VHF # 145,050/650 Town UHF # 431,050/438,650 Uitenhage # 145,075/675# - These repeaters form a separate sub-net in the PE - Uitenhage - Despatch area

Cockscomb 145,000/600 Lady's Slipper *145,100/700 Colesberg *431,075/438,675Noupoort *431,150/438,750 Cradock *145,050/650

* These form the PEARS long-range 2-metre repeater system, also linked to which are EastLondon 145,775 MHz, George 145,700, Danabaai 145,600, Stilbaai 145,750, Butterworth145,725, King Williams Town 145,625 and Umtata (438,725 duplex). It is further extendable toCape Town via the WCRWG system. # These can also be linked as required.

PACKET NETWORK

ZS0NTP-2 Packet Node - Lady's Slipper 7.040 300bd, 144.625 1200bd, 434.875 9600bd,433.800 1200bd APRS, Cape Linked Network listen-only for APRS.ZS0NTP Packet Bulletin Board - Lady's Slipper Access via the node, or use "VIA ZS0NTP-7"ZS0GHT-2 Packet Node - Governorskop 144.675, 438.275, 434.875ZS0CDK-2 Packet Node - Cradock 144.675ZS2ABZ-4 WMR918 Weather Station on APRS 144.625

BEACONS

2M Beacon (ZS2VHF CW ID, FSK) Horizontally polarised 25W ERP 144.415

6M Beacon (ZS2SIX CW ID, FSK) Horizontally polarised 25W ERP 50.005

See the PEARS web site at www.zs2pe.co.za for further details and network diagrams.

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